`But I don't want to go among mad people,' Alice remarked. `Oh, you can't help that,' said the Cat: `we're all mad here. I'm mad. You're mad.' `How do you know I'm mad?' said Alice. `You must be,' said the Cat, `or you wouldn't have come here.'

Quod Sum Eris

you guys call such rogues as who are not father.,, dad.. but sperm donors.,

So I call them DOGS AND SPERM DONORS..

I would never insult dogs in this manner.

`But I don't want to go among mad people,' Alice remarked. `Oh, you can't help that,' said the Cat: `we're all mad here. I'm mad. You're mad.' `How do you know I'm mad?' said Alice. `You must be,' said the Cat, `or you wouldn't have come here.'

Tonyt

If ISIS were to conquer Saudi Arabia, i wouldn't think it would be so bad to be honest. All of the socially backward laws they want to impose already exist there anyways, and there are few minorities there for them to hurt. If it would just mean the fall of the House of Saud, that might be a positive thing. The US would definitely have to intervene then and put an end to this whole Caliphate adventure.

osmanthus

I think it would be "so bad". You seriously think ISIS rampaging through the Arabian Peninsula would be worth it just to get rid of Saud? And that the US military campaigning in said peninsula would be ever so cool for international relations in general?

Devious, treacherous, murderous, neanderthal, sub-human of the West.

Cato

If ISIS were to conquer Saudi Arabia, i wouldn't think it would be so bad to be honest. All of the socially backward laws they want to impose already exist there anyways, and there are few minorities there for them to hurt. If it would just mean the fall of the House of Saud, that might be a positive thing. The US would definitely have to intervene then and put an end to this whole Caliphate adventure.

It might not be a positive thing if the House of Saud fall since it will be another case of a slave or servant replacing their master that will preserve the status quo but on the other hand it could be economic wise, since they may likely cut off Saudi's government ties with US govt which could lead to the end of ARAMCO and whatnot. However I don't see ISIS conquering Iraq,Syria and Saudi, and run them as a political state, that's a pipe dream IMO

"I'm standing here like an asshole holding my Charles Dickens"

"No theory,No ready made system,no book that has ever been written to save the world. i cleave to no system.."-Bakunin

yeezevee

................However I don't see ISIS conquering Iraq,Syria and Saudi, and run them as a political state, that's a pipe dream IMO....

That I have to agree., I too don't see any war machinery that can erect the Caliph pipe dream in Islamic world in this ISIS., They can not even stand two days of real war with trained soldiers.. They are bunch of buffoons scaring women/children old men around villages and act as perfect propaganda for the KING DORMS OF ARABIAN Peninsula., Their news is for scaring people so kings in Arabian peninsula can keep the KING DORMS another 10 or 20 years..

Muslims and Islamic world around middle east has serious leadership problem... And Islam like any other religion has no proper rules/pathway to create leader within community., What all it has is rules to create bunch of breaded preachers and burqa covered women folk.

Mark Dunaway says he converted to Islam more than 10 years ago and has long flown a flag that has since been adopted as the banner of ISIS, the murderous jihadist group that claims to have established a caliphate in Iraq and Syria.

Quote

A 44-year-old Muslim convert says it was news to him that the flag he hung outside his house is the same banner waved by the murderous jihadist group known as Islamic State.

Neighbors and passersby who took to Twitter were alarmed at the black flag emblazoned with the Arabic words “The only god is Allah” flying from above the porch of Mark Dunaway, in Garwood, N.J. The chilling banner flew next to a red flag of Islam, but Dunaway said he never intended to show support for the terrorist group infamous for beheading Christians.

"I hang it every Friday and every Ramadan which ended not too long ago and I keep it up a little longer than I normally do,” Dunaway told FoxNews.com. “I guess some people saw it and got offended so I took it down. I do not support any militant group or anything like that.”..

The rapid advance of the militant Islamic State movement in Syria and Iraq this year has been notable not just for its barbarity and brutality but for its deft and chilling social media operation.

Operations are routinely accompanied by grim images and videos of the atrocities perpetrated by the extremists. At the same time, Isis also takes care to document the donation of toys to children and TVs and fans to civilians in the battle for hearts and minds.

Twitter has very recently started cracking down on accounts used by Isis, and other mainstream organisations may follow. But the propagandists are web savvy, and can exploit the internet just like anyone else.

This is how, unknowingly, a 26-year-old Polish man’s website has become an essential part of Isis’s propaganda machine.

JustPaste.it, owned and managed by Mariusz Żurawek, is being used by Isis to upload a large number of images of executions, beheadings and massacres, as well as more prosaic images of life – an essential part of the group’s social media operation.

and his name is Mariusz Żurawek of JustPaste.it,... That Osama Islamic propaganda was far more effective than these fools

Cornflower

Just read in Swedish newspapers how ISIS kidnapped four daughters, todler twins and the husband of a Yazidi family. Only the mother and three children including a new born escaped. The new born died after reaching Kurdistan. I just.... they took the children to raise as Muslim foot soldiers, just like the Ottoman empire did. And the daughters? Sold into slavery or forced marriages used as sex slaves. This is truly a marvelous khalifa, exactly how I would imagine an Islamic state to look like.

"The healthiest people I know are those who are the first to label themselves fucked up." - three

TheDashingRabbit

I think it would be "so bad". You seriously think ISIS rampaging through the Arabian Peninsula would be worth it just to get rid of Saud? And that the US military campaigning in said peninsula would be ever so cool for international relations in general?

Not to mention ISIS taking all of KSA's military weapons and equipment.

In my opinion a life without curiosity is not a life worth living

Quod Sum Eris

Just read in Swedish newspapers how ISIS kidnapped four daughters, todler twins and the husband of a Yazidi family. Only the mother and three children including a new born escaped. The new born died after reaching Kurdistan. I just.... they took the children to raise as Muslim foot soldiers, just like the Ottoman empire did. And the daughters? Sold into slavery or forced marriages used as sex slaves. This is truly a marvelous khalifa, exactly how I would imagine an Islamic state to look like.

`But I don't want to go among mad people,' Alice remarked. `Oh, you can't help that,' said the Cat: `we're all mad here. I'm mad. You're mad.' `How do you know I'm mad?' said Alice. `You must be,' said the Cat, `or you wouldn't have come here.'

Following their attempt to form a caliphate in the vast area of the Middle East under their control, ISIS leaders are said to be introducing passports to give the unrecognised state an air of legitimacy.

However experts believe the sinister black and white design, which is based on the black jihadist flag flown by ISIS terrorists and warns of a 'deployment of armies' if the holder comes to harm while travelling abroad, proved the passports are little more than a symbolic gesture.

While ISIS has expressed a desire to expand its territory to include stretches of Europe, including Rome and Madrid, and have also threatened to raise the jihadist flag over Downing Street and the White House, the issuing of passports is more about sending a message than transporting fighters.

Issuing state documents is both a clear indication that ISIS considers its declared caliphate to be the world's newest state, and also to shrug off the threat posed to its existence by U.S. airstrikes.

So far at least two versions of the alleged passport have emerged online.

Although it is not possible to prove the authenticity of either version, the latter has been widely shared on social media by respected terror experts and academics.

Dr Magnus Ranstorp, a Swedish academic who regularly briefs senior government and security officials on the threat of Islamic terrorism, tweeted a photograph of the plastic passport along with the caption: 'Illusions of a Caliphate. ISIS issue passports as part of psychological warfare.'

More on the story of those twats handing out leaflets INcePtion posted a pic of is also in the link.

`But I don't want to go among mad people,' Alice remarked. `Oh, you can't help that,' said the Cat: `we're all mad here. I'm mad. You're mad.' `How do you know I'm mad?' said Alice. `You must be,' said the Cat, `or you wouldn't have come here.'

Quod Sum Eris

Kurds welcome move by Britain to significantly intensify its involvement in the current Iraq crisis

David Cameron is prepared to supply weapons directly to Kurdish forces fighting jihadists from the Islamic State (Isis) in northern Iraq, in a move that risks drawing Britain back indirectly into the country's conflict.

In a significant intensification of British involvement in the Iraq crisis, the foreign secretary, Philip Hammond, will tell his EU counterparts in Brussels on Friday that Britain is prepared to join France in arming the Kurds. Cameron and Nick Clegg agreed the plan at an emergency Cobra meeting.

The move was immediately welcomed by the chancellor of the Kurdish Region Security Council, who had pleaded with Britain earlier in the week to rally to the help of the Kurds. Masrour Barzani said: "If it's true, we welcome and appreciate the British decision to supply us with the effective weapons that we've been asking for."

The decision to pave the way for the possible supply of arms to Iraq means that the UK may once again bear responsibility – if only indirectly – for casualties in Iraq. Operation Telic, the name for the British military operation, ended in 2011. UK combat operations ended in 2009.

Government sources said Britain was not moving towards direct military intervention in Iraq. They said the decision to respond positively to a request to arm Kurdish forces was consistent with the government's approach of responding to a humanitarian crisis.

Britain previously indicated that it was only prepared to transport weapons to the Kurds on behalf of other EU countries. These were mainly Soviet-era weapons from former Warsaw-pact countries.

But Cameron and Clegg, the latter of whom took part Cobra meeting via a secure link from his Spanish holiday, agreed that Britain would now respond favourably to a request from the Kurds for direct military assistance. It is expected that Britain would initially provide hi-tech equipment, such as night-vision goggles. The Kurds have been trained on weapons from the former Soviet Union which means that they rely on eastern European countries for their arms. But Britain would provide weapons and ammunition if requested.

The decision to agree to such a request highlighted Britain's concerns about the challenge of defeating Isis forces, despite what the prime minister described as "good news" after Washington abandoned a rescue mission from Mount Sinjar. The decision was made after US forces on the ground found fewer than expected Yazidi refugees because the Kurds had already rescued many and US air strikes succeeded in beating back Isis forces.

Barack Obama hailed the success of the air strikes in breaking the Isis siege of Mount Sinjar. The US president said: "We broke the [Isis] siege of Mount Sinjar. We helped vulnerable people reach safety and we helped save many innocent lives. Because of these efforts, we do not expect there to be an additional operation to evacuate people off the mountain and it is unlikely that we are going to need to continue humanitarian airdrops on the mountain. The majority of the military personnel who conducted the assessment will be leaving Iraq in the coming days."

But Britain agrees with the US and France that the Kurds will need reinforcements amid mixed success in beating back Isis forces. "This is a long-term challenge and a long-term threat," one government source said. "You want to enable the forces in the region to be able to confront[Isis]."

A Downing Street spokesperson hinted at the change of tack when commenting on the Cobra meeting. The spokesperson said: "It is vital that Iraqi and Kurdish forces are able to stop the advance of [Isis] terrorists across the country … We will also continue our work to ensure that Kurdish forces have the military supplies they require, including transporting more equipment from eastern Europe. The foreign secretary will use the meeting of foreign ministers from across Europe to press for better coordination of aid and military supplies to Iraq."

No 10's spokesperson made clear that Britain agreed with Obama that the need for humanitarian air drops had lessened. "We are reviewing the need for additional airdrops, given that there appear to be adequate supplies on the mountain, but we will keep the option open if we establish there is further need. We will also maintain our Chinook helicopters in the region so we have the flexibility to help the most vulnerable if the need arises, and our Tornados will also stay out there in case we require further surveillance of the area."

Nadhim Zahawi, the Conservative MP who was born to Kurdish parents in Baghdad, welcomed the announcement. Zahawi, a member of the Downing Street policy board who flew to Irbil on Thursday evening, said: "It is important that we have looked at this carefully and taken a position that effectively supports the Kurdish army in their battle, which will be a long-term battle, with the Islamic State. The Kurds have got the heart for this battle.

"The Kurdish president has made it very clear to western allies that he doesn't need their boys and girls on the ground. He just said give us the weapons and the wherewithal and the air cover and they will take this fight to Isis."

The embattled Iraqi prime minister, Nouri al Maliki, has agreed to step aside and support his nominated replacement, Haider al-Abadi, in the post.

Abadi, a veteran of Iraq's post-Saddam Hussein governments, was appointed on Monday after the country's president effectively deposed Maliki in an effort to break the political deadlock that has paralysed the government while jihadists sweep through the north of the country.

Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis driven from their homes by Islamic extremists remain at risk even after the breaking of the siege of Mount Sinjar, Kurdish officials and humanitarian aid workers in the north of the country have warned. The UN signalled that the crisis in the wider region was far from over, and declared its highest level of emergency for more than 1 million people displaced by fighting this year in Iraq, putting the crisis on a par with those of Syria, South Sudan and the Central African Republic.

At least 50,000 displaced Yazidis are still trying to find shelter inside the Kurdish north after abandoning their homes and belongings as they escaped from Islamic extremists who ousted them from their ancient lands as they advanced towards Erbil.

Officials in the Kurdish capital say most of the new refugees have access to water and food, but very few have sufficient shelter. Every town square and most unfinished buildings between the Syrian Kurdish border and the region's third city, Duhok, remains crammed with Yazidis who are yet to find homes almost two weeks after they were first forced to escape to Mount Sinjar.

Scenes of deprivation on a barren mountaintop galvanised a US-driven international response and led to air strikes against jihadist positions on either side of the 72km (45-mile) ridge. Britain, Turkey, France and Australian also dropped food and water and Washington suggested it was considering returning some forces to Iraq to help the Yazidis escape.

But moves towards an extensive military mission were slowed on Thursday, after an assessment by US and British special forces on Mount Sinjar that most of those who needed help now had access to it. The US said many of those still on the southern ledge had chosen to remain there.

The Kurdish north is teeming with refugees two months after much of northern Iraq was emptied by the advance of militants from the Islamic State who have shattered centuries of coexistence in the area.

By some estimates, as many as 1.2 million exiles have made the journey to the Kurdish north since then, 200,000 of whom have arrived in the past fortnight alone. Hundreds of thousands of other Iraqis have been displaced from western and central Iraq in a mass movement of people that rivals the worst years of Iraq's civil war.

"Many of those displaced fled from Mosul and its surroundings when violence erupted there in June and July," said Dr Chiara Lepora, Iraq programme manager for Médecins Sans Frontières. "Some are fleeing for the second time, having first fled the violence in Anbar province to take refuge in Mosul."

The UNHCR said it was scrambling to provide tents and to establish camps for the new arrivals, who crossed into the poorest part of the Kurdish north, which is already a temporary home to refugees who have fled the civil war in Syria.

The UN said the scale of the humanitarian crisis was now on a par with Syria, South Sudan and the Central African Republic.

The US and France have rushed military aid to Erbil to help Kurdish Peshmurga forces take on ISIS, whose forces got as close as 50km from the city limits earlier in the week, before being pushed back by US air strikes.

Chancellor of the Kurdish Region Security Council, Masrour Barzani, told the Guardian that the Peshmurga had been badly outgunned in battle by a terror group that had looted US-supplied heavy weapons from military arsenals abandoned by the Iraqi Army in mid-June.

"We need all the help we can get," Barzani said. "Without it, the consequences will be too difficult for any of us to imagine.

British officials were keen to make clear that the UK was not bounced into the decision by the US to abandon the planned rescue mission from Mount Sinjar. British Tornado jets which mounted a surveillance mission over the mountain on Wednesday night also "could not identify people in the numbers previously estimated", No 10 said. British officials were fully involved in the US decision.

The announcement that Britain is prepared to arm the Kurds came as the Labour party, which blocked Cameron's attempts to launch military strikes against the regime of the Syrian president Bashar al-Assad last year, made clear that it was more supportive of British involvement in Iraq.

Peter Hain, the former cabinet minister and close ally of Ed Miliband who helped to defeat the government last year on Syria, said: "The genocidal attacks by Isis are in the same category as Kosovo 1999 and Sierra Leone 2000. Quite different to being propelled into the quagmire of a Syrian civil war.

"Although I do not support British soldiers fighting on the ground, we have to do everything else we can to provide the Kurds with the equipment they need to repel attacks and to stop Isis and its medieval barbarism. I believe the British public will support such an essentially humanitarian mission and if the prime minister consults other party leaders there will be no need to recall parliament. We need urgent common sense action not parliamentary grandstanding."

`But I don't want to go among mad people,' Alice remarked. `Oh, you can't help that,' said the Cat: `we're all mad here. I'm mad. You're mad.' `How do you know I'm mad?' said Alice. `You must be,' said the Cat, `or you wouldn't have come here.'

UK and other nations should also support and supply Arms to Palestinians so they can fight Egypt Jordan and Saudi Arabia and make a country for themselves from these three countries whose borders were shaped by England in 1940s .. Or other thing they could do is give immigrations to some 4million Palestinians who are scattered/living in ghettos around Israel

Do not let silence become your legacy.. Question everything

I renounced my faith to become a kafir, the beloved betrayed me and turned in to a Muslim

Quod Sum Eris

An information-sharing website run from a bedroom in Poland has become part of the militants’ slick public relations operation

The rapid advance of the militant Islamic State movement in Syria and Iraq this year has been notable not just for its barbarity and brutality but for its deft and chilling social media operation.

Operations are routinely accompanied by grim images and videos of the atrocities perpetrated by the extremists. At the same time, Isis also takes care to document the donation of toys to children and TVs and fans to civilians in the battle for hearts and minds.

Twitter has very recently started cracking down on accounts used by Isis, and other mainstream organisations may follow. But the propagandists are web savvy, and can exploit the internet just like anyone else.

This is how, unknowingly, a 26-year-old Polish man’s website has become an essential part of Isis’s propaganda machine.

JustPaste.it, owned and managed by Mariusz Żurawek, is being used by Isis to upload a large number of images of executions, beheadings and massacres, as well as more prosaic images of life – an essential part of the group’s social media operation.

The free service is run by Żurawek from his bedroom, until recently just in his spare time and with only occasional help from his brother. The service allows users to upload text, images and video.

Żurawek says: “You are able to do what you want with almost two clicks.” It doesn’t require registration, it isn’t searchable and access to specific content is only available via a link or if it makes the “most popular” page.

JustPaste.it’s role in Isis’s propaganda machine has largely gone unnoticed. All of the images uploaded to Żurawek’s service by Isis members have details of a related Twitter account stamped on them. The user’s Twitter handle is also printed at the bottom of each image, so reporters have been crediting the images to Twitter.

As the UK intensifies its involvement in Iraq, the Metropolitan police’s anti-terrorism unit has paid more attention to JustPaste.it and recently asked Żurawek to remove individual Isis posts. “I’ve got a constant cooperation with the UK police, and if they found any illegal materials, they just send a take-down notice,” he said. Police recently requested the site delete content including “videos attempting to persuade western Muslims to join Isis, graphic executions committed by Isis fighters and other material which incites violence and glorifies the actions of this group”, according to Żurawek.

But a huge number of posts remain on the site, including a full set of images, some of which were picked up by the Daily Mail from Twitter last week, that document the massacre of up to 500 prisoners of the Yazidi faith.

One set of images closely, and graphically, documents the beheading of a man as he is surrounded by a circle of people, including children. Another set sees a group of what the caption describes as 10 men in Raqqa murdered and piled up in the street. Other sets of images show the group detonating bombs and blowing up religious sites, and others show the daily life of fighters.

Isis’s corresponding Twitter accounts were all active until Tuesday evening, when they appear to have been suspended.

Twitter does not comment on account suspension cases but the company’s rules state that it will remove accounts that use excessively violent posts or threats and, in some cases, will do so at a government’s request.

Over the last two months JustPaste.it has seen a significant increase in the number of users, in part down to the large amount of traffic from the Middle East. According to Google Analytics, the platform has about 2.5 million unique users a month, which works out at about 6 million sessions every month. The service, Żurawek said, does not compete with advanced online text editors, such as Google Docs or Microsoft Office 365, but rather creates a place that is extremely easy and simple to use. It’s similar to Pastebin, the service popular with hackers, but with image files too.

Its most significant appeal for users such as Isis is that JustPaste.it runs fast even on slow internet connections. There are no additional items on the pages such as adverts or pop-ups, meaning it is extremely easy to use on mobile phones. “I’ve got a lot of traffic from Syria, where internet reception is very poor – people are using JustPaste.it for that reason,” Żurawek said.

Other than shutting it down, there is no way of stopping Isis using JustPaste.it. It is not possible to block users other than by detecting IP addresses or tracking users’ cookies. “If someone wants to be anonymous you can’t do anything. There is no difference if you’re using account registration or not,” Żurawek said. JustPaste.it users use proxy gates. Tor and the increased use of mobile phones mean blocking unwanted usage isn’t possible.

Asked about the use of his site and if Isis are criminals, Żurawek said: “Ask your government. As I said, I’m not a politician. I think that my feelings are not important in that situation. It’s a tragedy what’s going on now in Syria and Iraq, but also in Ukraine.

“I think that we should fight for freedom in the internet, but also fight things like child pornography. Freedom of speech is important, but it can’t be a shield for criminals.

“I do not want to interfere with any type of conflict and stay on one side. JustPaste.it is just a text-sharing platform. It’s more a politics thing to discuss than a business one. I don’t have enough information about Isis to tell the public if they are good or evil. JustPaste.it has many users. I cannot focus on a single group.

“I don’t see any reason why they should shut down the service. Should they shut down Twitter too? It’s not Turkey.”

As the propaganda war intensifies online, just as the physical war does on the ground, there are likely to be growing calls to regulate or crack down on services that can help disseminate such content. Small sites like Żurawek’s face the same ethical dilemma as giants Facebook and Google – who themselves are generally keen to be seen as platforms without responsibility for their content.

How do you feel about the web’s role as a conduit for propaganda? Should more efforts be made to intervene or is freedom of expression more important? Tell us below.

`But I don't want to go among mad people,' Alice remarked. `Oh, you can't help that,' said the Cat: `we're all mad here. I'm mad. You're mad.' `How do you know I'm mad?' said Alice. `You must be,' said the Cat, `or you wouldn't have come here.'

Lets hope the introspection that may be caused by this makes many question the belief in 'flawlessness' of Islam, and a need at the very least to re-think the relation between religion and power because of what literalist religion does when it gets power

ibn Bilal

You know what, if I was a Muslim who didn't know this stuff really WAS in the quran and sunnah, I would think this really was all a conspiracy too. What sane person would believe it was good to massacre and rape, let alone holy?!

`But I don't want to go among mad people,' Alice remarked. `Oh, you can't help that,' said the Cat: `we're all mad here. I'm mad. You're mad.' `How do you know I'm mad?' said Alice. `You must be,' said the Cat, `or you wouldn't have come here.'

billy

For moderate Muslims it's the elephant in the room. For those of a more jihadist bent, it's too perfect a synergy to ignore. ISIS' amazing victories against huge odds, its lightning advance and its territorial ambitions are a modern day version of the birth of the Islamic Empire. But what is altogether more disturbing (and potentially fatally embarrassing for Muslim apologists) are the other parallels between the two movements, and in particular those tactics that all moderate, liberal, sane people dismiss as being barbaric and beyond the pale.

Take beheading. We have all seen the awful pictures and read the horrific accounts of ISIS using this method of execution. Some may even have been traumatised by watching the videos posted by the jihadists.Muslims know - or at least those who bother to read the salient verses do - that the Koran contains instructions to behead "the unbelievers" and that Mohammad himself ordered the beheadings of many captives.When you meet the unbelievers, strike off their heads; then when you have made wide slaughter among them, carefully tie up the remaining captives 47:4.If my convert friend is typical, educated Muslims maintain that here God is teaching the Muslims a more humane way of waging war since prior to this time, the pagan Arabs would crush their enemies with heavy stones. Muslims are also taught that any verse which allows violence does so only for purposes of self-defence and that there are other more peaceable verses which instruct Muslims to live side-by-side with "the people of the book". A careful study of when the various verses were "revealed" gives a different picture, however. When Mohammad was trying to gain followers by preaching alone, the tone is peaceable, but as soon as the Muslims settle in Medina and more followers join the Muslims, the verses become more bellicose. Such is the case here.

Take crucifixion. Again we have read the accounts of ISIS using this barbaric method for torturing and killing their prisoners or displaying their corpses.The idea for such brutality comes not from the crazed minds of the jihadists though. No. They are simply following the instructions contained in the Koran:The punishment of those who wage war against Allah and His Messenger, and strive with might and main for mischief through the land is: execution, or crucifixion, or the cutting off of hands and feet from opposite sides, or exile from the land: that is their disgrace in this world, and a heavy punishment is theirs in the Hereafter 5:33And what of the disturbing reports of the members of ISIS taking the women of those they have beaten in battles for their sex slaves? Again the jihadists are simply taking their inspiration from their holy book and their own prophet. O PROPHET! Behold, We have made lawful to thee thy wives unto whom thou hast paid their dowers, as well as those whom thy right hand has come to possess from among the captives of war whom God has bestowed upon thee. 33:50Here the phrase "whom thy right hand has come to possess" refers to slaves taken a spoils of war. God is telling Mohammad that he may have sex with his slaves taken in war without committing a sin. And in 23:1-6 this allowance is extended to his believers who are told that to get to paradise they must abstain from sex apart from with their wives or their slave girls:TRULY, to a happy state shall attain the believers: those who humble themselves in their prayer; Who abstain from sex; Except with those joined to them in the marriage bond, or (the captives) whom their right hands possess,- for (in their case) they are free from blame,Many Muslims will tell you that one of the proofs of the truth of Islam is the way in which God helped a small band of believers to conquer an empire against astounding odds. Battles were won when Mohammad and his followers were out-numbered by ten-to-one or more. The speed with which the Muslims over-ran territory and established the Caliphate, they say, was truly astounding and can only be explained if one understands that God was helping His prophet.

And now we have a small band of believers, who use the tactics that Mohammad himself used so successfully to inspire his followers - promises of wealth, glory and eternal bliss surrounded by doe-eyed virgins, and threats of terror and punishments without mercy to cow their enemies into submission - who are enjoying victory after victory against huge odds, making lightening advances and gaining huge amounts of territory.

Is God helping ISIS? Unless you're a heartless lunatic or your brain has been turned to mush by an extremist preacher presumably you think not. You dismiss them for what they are. Crazed, homicidal psychopaths whose minds have been turned by poisonous propaganda.

And yet...didn't you say you believe Mohammad was the prophet of God partly because of his unlikely victories?

yeezevee

Mosul Dam (Arabic: سد الموصل‎) or Chambarakat Dam, formerly known as Saddam Dam (سد صدام), is the largest dam in Iraq. It is located on the Tigris River in the western governorate of Ninawa, upstream of the city of Mosul. The hydroelectric dam holds, at full capacity, about 11.1 cubic kilometres (2.7 cu mi) of water and provides electricity to the 1.7 million residents of Mosul. The dam's main 750 MW power station contains four 187.5-MW Francis turbine-generators.

Quote

A pumped-storage hydroelectricity power plant with a capacity of 240 MW and a run-of-the-river dam downstream with a 62 MW capacity also belong to the Mosul Dam scheme. It is ranked as the fourth largest dam in the Middle East, measured by reserve capacity, capturing snowmelt from Turkey, some 70 miles (110 km) north.[5] Built on a karst foundation, concerns over the dam's instability have led to major remediation and rehabilitation efforts since the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Construction on the Mosul Dam began in 1980 by a German-Italian consortium that was led by Hochtief Aktiengesellschaft. Because the dam was constructed on a foundation of soluble gypsum, the engineers installed a grouting gallery that would allow continuous grouting of the dam's foundation in order to promote stability. Construction was complete in 1984 and in the Spring of 1985, the Mosul Dam began to inundate the Tigris River, filling the reservoir which submerged many archaeological sites in the region. Due to significant structural stability issues associated with the Mosul Dam, grouting and additional construction and repairs are constan

(Clicky for piccy!)The Mosul dam is Iraq's largest and was overrun by militants on 7 August

IS, formerly known as Isis, has seized a swathe of territory in recent months in Iraq and Syria.

If the recapture of the dam is confirmed, it will be the biggest reverse for IS since they launched their offensive in Iraq in June.

US special forcesThe US said it had destroyed or damaged 19 vehicles belonging to IS militants as well as a checkpoint in strikes round the dam on Sunday.

Hoshyar Zebari, a Kurd who until last month was Iraq's foreign minister, told the BBC that Peshmerga troops had encountered "fierce resistance" in the battle for the dam.

Former Iraqi foreign minister Hoshyar Zebari: "We are not talking about a bunch of amateur jihadists"He said the next objective was to clear IS fighters from the Nineveh plain "to ensure the return of minorities".

Thousands of Christians and Yazidis have fled their homes there in the face of the IS advance.

US special forces were on the ground helping to co-ordinate air strikes, Kurdish officials said.

Ali Awni, an official from Iraq's main Kurdish party, told AFP news agency that fighting was now taking place in the nearby Tal Kayf area.

An unnamed Peshmerga officer explained the importance of the dam for AP news agency: "It is very important for the life in this area, for drinking water, for agriculture and other things.

"The other important thing, which is more important, is that if ISIS [IS] blows up this dam, then Mosul, Baghdad and other places will be damaged and will no longer exist."

MassacresWhile US aircraft support the battle against IS militarily, Western states have been airlifting humanitarian aid to refugees, many of whom have found shelter in the Kurdish region.

(Clicky for piccy!)Shia Muslim refugees from Mosul eat at a refugee camp in BaghdadIS militants have been accused of massacring hundreds of people in areas under their control in northern Iraq and eastern Syria.

At least 80 men from the Yazidi religious minority are believed to have been killed, and women and children abducted, in a village in Iraq on Friday.

IS is also accused of killing 700 tribesmen opposing them in Syria's Deir Ezzor province, over a two-week period.

The violence has displaced an estimated 1.2 million people in Iraq alone.

Pursuing an extreme form of Sunni Islam, IS has persecuted non-Muslims such as Yazidis and Christians, as well as Shia Muslims, whom it regards as heretics.

Iraq's new Prime Minister, Haider al-Abadi, who is from the Shia majority, is grappling with the challenge of uniting the country against IS and winning back the trust of alienated Sunni Iraqis.